Latest "Growth" Posts

You go to the doctor every year for a health checkup to make sure your body is running smoothly. She checks your weight, blood pressure, takes your history, asks about your eating habits, your exercise habits, and basically checks every bodily system. The tests that are performed tell the doctor about the current state of your body, so she can give you the most accurate advice about improving your health.

The doctor tries to identify the areas of weakness to avert a major illness and additional expense. This is what the Strategy Diagnostic does for an organization.

We perform the health checkup using the Strategy Diagnostic for your organization. We run the broad spectrum of financial tests to determine where you can improve your operations and save money. We help you create a lean, efficient operation that is prepared to move in any desired direction in the future.

Just as your lifestyle habits impact your health, the finances of an organization are the result of an organization’s operations. Whatever is going on in sales, marketing, human resources, and all operations will show up in the financial results. When we apply the financials to all aspects of the organization and then compare the results to the accepted norms of your particular industry, we can tell you what needs to be done to become more efficient, healthier.

Specifically, we are looking for areas inside your organization that will help you increase revenue, decrease costs and raise the EBITDA, thus specifically raising the value of the company.

When you have finished implementing our recommendations, then you are ready to go after your Blue Ocean Strategy, or face the banks, venture capitalists, business brokers, investors, or expand your business any way you desire.

In a recent post, the US Chamber of Commerce posted the results of a quick poll. One of the questions was regarding the biggest obstacle to creating jobs. The greatest number of respondents said that lack of sufficient customers was the biggest obstacle. Here is my response to the Chamber on their blog:

I noticed that your poll indicates the largest obstacle to creating jobs is lack of customers. It is time for us to get away from the notion that we can keep doing what we have always done yet expect different or better results. Why we keep doing that is a mystery to me.

Are you happy with your strategy? Are you bringing in new customers that have never bought from you or your competitors before? Think, Nintendo Wii. Sataru Iwata looked past the competition; looked past the market of young antisocial males who bought most of the electronic games, and created a huge mass market that had never before purchased electronic games. Their competition is still scrambling years later.

So what are you doing to expand your horizons into a new market? Do you think it is not possible for you and your company? It not only is possible, it is being accomplished by organizations from police departments (NYPD) to governments (CHINA) to classical maestos (Andre Rieu), not to mention the traditional organizations like Nintendo, HCL financial and CROC.

OK, so now you have created your PMS map and are realizing most of your products are in a great big bloody Red Ocean where you are constantly fighting off the competition in a shrinking pool of revenue and profit. You have created your strategy canvas, and have tested the competitive factors so you know just what factors the market makes decisions. Now what?

Well, this is the fun part. Looking at your strategy canvas and the competitive factors, there are four things you can do with competitive factors. You can eliminate them, reduce your investment or level of offering in them, raise your investment or level of offering in them, or create new ones. It is these actions or strategic moves taken by the CEO that helps to formulate the new blue ocean strategy.

Often in the corporate world, we get so buried in numbers and words that it is difficult to see the big picture. One of the key principles of Blue Ocean Strategy is to focus on the big picture, not the numbers. How much easier it is to understand a position or concept when you can see a picture of it.

The Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map is a diagnostic tool that allows you to see just how your revenue generating products and services fare in their contribution to the future growth of the company. It helps you determine if you are fighting for your life in the Bloody Red Ocean of competition or enjoying the beautiful deep Blue Ocean with no competition in sight. Key products are organized into three categories and then displayed by size.

In order to have value innovation, the value to the customer, the price to the customer and the cost to the company, must all be aligned. If any of these three elements are out of alignment, the initiative will not be a commercial success. Just try to have the price out of alignment with the cost. The company will lose money. Or have the price not in line with the value to the customer, the customer won’t buy and the product won’t be a commercial success.

Value Innovation is the cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy® and is created through a series of strategic moves resulting in a product or service substantially different from any other offering. These strategic moves also function to lower costs to the producer of the product or service, resulting in the capability to offer a high value product or service that has not been seen before, at a very reasonable price to the buyer.

Why value innovation? Value without innovation will give only incremental gains easily duplicated by the competition. Innovation without value is typically technology oriented and won’t be a commercial success.

Over the years, Corporate Strategy Institute has conducted regular CEO research to help us keep abreast of the major issues affecting our clients. It has never ceased to amaze us how many CEOs and Boards of Directors keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

Many CEOs and Boards do not know when to create a new strategy. Maybe asking yourself some critical questions will help. Answer the following questions True or False:

1. Is the growth on the top line insufficient with no reversal in sight?

According to Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel Corporation, the United States will need to improve its capacity to innovate if it wants to maintain its economic position in the world,. Furthermore, government must make R&D more of a priority, as should private industry.

In an interview putblished by Insead Univeristy, Barrett says that INTEL is one of the largest venture capitalists in the world and no longer invests as heavily in the US and Europe, but rather in Asia.

The other day someone asked me when Blue Ocean Strategy should be considered as a process for their company. I kept wondering when shouldn’t it be considered as a process?

Most companies seem to be in a do or die situation with our economy today. Blue Ocean Strategy tools and processes are the very best way to navigate past all that mess and create something you don’t have to worry about. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about your competitors?